Jamie Norwood and Cynthia Plotch, co-founders of vaginal and sexual health brand Winx Health, first felt compelled to take a political stance with their brand when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. And with one of the most consequential elections of our lifetimes just days away, they are continuing to lean in with a campaign dubbed “Raise Your Voice for Your Rights.”
At the Democratic National Convention in August, Winx partnered on an event with activist-influencer Deja Foxx (57,000 Instagram followers). Advertised as a “Hotties for Harris” party, Foxx was the host and a featured speaker, while Winx offered up free products. Winx’s products include a UTI-prevention supplement, emergency contraception, yeast infection treatment and pregnancy tests, among others. The products were set up as part of a “sex clearance sale that poked fun at Project 2025 — like, ‘This might be the last chance for you to ever get these products,’ Norwood said, adding, “It was dark, but it definitely started a conversation.”
Foxx was not paid for the partnership but advises and has equity in the brand. In the month following the DNC, Winx’s social impressions increased 322%, which it attributed to its uptick in political content. Winx products are sold via its own website as well as through Amazon, Instacart, Doordash and Gopuff.
Winx, which was formerly known as Stix, first ventured into merch this summer when it created sweatshirts reading “Pee after sex” to gift to influencers and media in celebration of its relaunch. The brand’s customers wanted the sweatshirts, too, so Winx put the extra inventory it had up for sale.
More recently, to create a voting sweatshirt, Norwood and Plotch wanted to partner with like-minded brands. But finding partners was not so easy.
According to the founders, they reached out to hundreds of brands spanning the beauty, wellness, fashion and health industries, all of which have women as their primary customer bases. Winx was seeking brands willing to publicly take a stand on the issues impacting women and their reproductive health, beyond just telling followers to vote. A few brands passed, and most simply did not respond.
“It’s not like we were pitching the L’Oréals [giant beauty conglomerates] of the world. We were talking to brands that were closely aligned with the work we are doing and have communities that look like ours — young women whose rights are at stake in this election, literally on the ballot in 10 different states, and threatened by Project 2025,” Plotch said.
Instead, the founders opted to partner with influencers. Along with Foxx, that included Victoria Hammett (43,000 Instagram followers), also an activist-influencer and the deputy executive director of the nonprofit collective Gen Z for Change. Other partners include OBGYN Dr. Lucky Sekhon, period-care brand Viv for Your V and sexual health brand Cadence OTC. These partners shared joint posts on Instagram driving to education.
In addition to selling the sweatshirt, the brand’s campaign includes sharing links through which its community can register as a Repro Freedom Voter or sign up for phone banking opportunities via Mobilize.us. Winx also created a voter guide for abortion rights.
The brand’s voting sweatshirt reads “Vote with your v@g” and retails for $36. Twenty percent of sales go to abortion funds, with 10% donated to the Abortion Fund of Arizona and 10% to national abortion ballot initiative funds. As with the brand’s first sweatshirt, it was seeded to influencers and media. The first run sold out in a week, but sweatshirts ordered by October 29 will arrive before election day. Given that the sweatshirts are still for sale, the brand could not yet comment on sales or final donations.
“I think a ‘Vote with your V@g’ sweatshirt can seem like a funny and silly and irreverent thing, but the truth is, political merch can have an impact on an election,” Plotch said. She referenced an EverythingBranded survey stating that 68% of people think that merch will impact the results of an election.”
“A lot of brands and a lot of corporate leadership are scared that if they speak out, they’re going to alienate a large part of their customer base — but we’ve found the exact opposite to be true,” Norwood said. “We’re hoping we can show other brands that when you are authentic to your mission and speak out and get involved, you bring more people in.”
